Infographic: Horse Meat – From Field, To Truck, To Slaughterhouse, To The Plate

Infographic: Horse Meat – From Field, To Truck, To Slaughterhouse, To The Plate

To most North Americans, the idea of eating horses just doesn’t sit quite right. The beasts of burden are loyal, sweet companion animals – more like loving pets than foodstuffs.
Eating what many see as a pet may turn some stomachs, but those in the industry warn that a healthy horsemeat industry makes for healthy horses.
Activists have long sought to spare the species from the slaughterhouse and in 2007, they succeeded when the U.S. effectively banned equine abattoirs. The effects were not what many would have hoped.
Plants in Mexico and Canada saw their share of meat horses more than double, depressing local meat prices and increasing incidents of neglect.
Now the creatures are shipped across the continent, and the horses that are arriving to the killing floors are much smaller than they used to be.